Renowned Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat sealed his quota in the women’s 50kg category at the Paris Olympics after a strong performance at the Asian Olympic qualifiers in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on Saturday. Also rushing into the Paris Olympics are Anshu Malik (57kg) and U23 world champion Retika (76kg). They also entered the finals of the competition with their outstanding performance.

India has now secured four berths for the Paris Olympics, with Antim Panjal clinching a spot in the 53kg category with a bronze-medal performance at the World Championships last year.

It will be interesting to see if the World Wrestling Federation lets the quota holders represent India or holds a final selection trial to select the national wrestling team.

At the Tokyo Olympics, India fielded a strong team of seven wrestlers, including four women – Seema Bisla (50kg), Vinesh (53kg), Anshu (57kg) and Sonam Malik (62kg).

No male wrestler has yet received a quota. The last chance to qualify for the Paris Olympics is the world qualifying tournament in Turkey on May 9.

Vinesh, 29, has now qualified for her third consecutive Olympics, having previously competed in Rio (2016) and Tokyo (2020).

Vinesh played strongly and defeated his opponents one by one.

After losing several months of training due to the long-running protests and ongoing legal battle against Brij Bhushan, getting the quota was a challenge for Vinesh and she did so by making the most of the easy draw.

As usual, Vinesh looked for an opportunity to subdue Miran Cheon in the opening match and took it after measuring out her Korean opponent for about 30 seconds.

Once she grabbed Cheon and pushed her down, the game ended quickly in 1 minute and 39 seconds.

It was difficult to break free from Vinesh’s clutches. The Indian used three gut-wrenching moves combined with an “exposure” to end the game.

The next game lasted only 67 seconds. Cambodia’s Smanang Dit is easy prey. Vinesh quickly pinned her down and advanced to the women’s 50kg semifinals.

The famous Indian wrestler faced some resistance from 19-year-old Kazakhstani wrestler Laura Ganikyzy in the semi-finals, but she used all her experience to frustrate her young opponent’s attacks.

Laura launched two attacks with her left leg, but Vinish counterattacked and scored, leading 4-0 at the end of the first quarter. This is the first time Vinesh has been pushed into the second stage in this tournament.

Once Vinesh caught Lara, she had no problem using a succession of gut wrench moves to end the match.

Vinesh competed in the 50kg category after winning the trials.

The competition’s finalists will earn a spot at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Anshu, the 2021 World Championships silver medalist, had no problem defeating Kyrgyzstan’s Kalmila Bilimbekova in the quarter-finals, winning with technical superiority.

Anshu, who also competed in the Tokyo Olympics, continued her impressive performance, defeating Uzbekistan’s Lelokhov Soboilova in the semifinals with technical superiority. It was a fast game directed by the Indians.

U23 world champion Reetika effortlessly defeated Eunju Hwang. She won the first round with technical superiority, with the Korean player having no reaction to Ritika’s level, and a similar win against Mongolia’s Davaanasan Enkh Amar. victory.

In the last match of the group stage against Chinese player Wang Juan, Retika once led 8-0, but the Chinese team fought back and scored six points in a row.

She made another move in the dying moments but to the relief of the Indian camp, the point was not awarded as it came at the end of regulation time.

In the semifinals, Redikja easily defeated Chinese Taipei player Xu Cichang 7-0.

Mansi Alawat (62kg) also made it to the semi-finals as she only had to win one match.

In the match against Kazakhstan’s Irina Kuznetsova, she won 6-4, but was defeated by North Korea’s Hyon Gyong Mun, who defended well and did not give the Indian any offense Opportunity.

The only Indian wrestler who failed to reach the semifinals was Nisha Dahiya (68kg).

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